Salt Lake NBC Affiliate Drops ‘Hannibal’

It’s the latest jettisoning by KSL-TV, Salt Lake City’s NBC affiliate owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The station said last night that it will stop airing freshman drama Hannibal due to the show’s “extensive graphic nature”, showing the local news in its place. Local CW affiliate KUCW has picked up Hannibal and will air it at midnight on Saturdays, after Saturday Night Live, which it also carries because KSL will not. KSL has made similar decisions not to air what it considers inappropriate content from NBC, including passing on sitcoms like The New Normal, Coupling and God, The Devil And Bob, and the now-cancelled drama The Playboy Club. NBC declined to comment on the latest move, which comes after the network itself scrapped Episode 4 of Hannibal that was slated to air April 25. That episode, “Ceuf”, was about families who were killed by their missing children — a plotline that didn’t sit well following the Newtown killings. The episode was later converted into webisodes that bridge the gap between Episode 3 and Episode 5, though the episode was broadcast in its entirety outside the U.S.